Supreme Court Narrows Racial-Gerrymandering Claims; Alabama Seeks to Restore 2023 Map

Alabama on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to allow the state to use its 2023 congressional map for the 2026 midterm elections. The request came one day after a three-judge panel in U.S. District Court in Birmingham declined to lift an injunction barring that map.

According to court filings cited across the sources, Alabama officials argued the panel's order should be reconsidered following the Supreme Court's recent ruling in a Louisiana redistricting case.

The state's Republican-led Legislature adopted the 2023 map after the 2020 census showed Black residents making up about 27 percent of Alabama's population. That map was blocked for the 2024 elections and replaced by a court-drawn plan that created two districts where Black voters form a majority or close to it.

Last month the Supreme Court ruled in the Louisiana case that drawing districts primarily on racial grounds can violate the Constitution. Alabama then asked the three-judge panel to reconsider its earlier order in light of that decision. The panel stood by its prior finding, citing what it called “undisputed evidence” that the 2023 plan was drawn to limit Black voting power.

In its filing to the Supreme Court, Alabama asked the justices to decide the request by Monday, June 1. Voters already cast ballots in the state's May 19 primaries under the court-drawn map. Republican Gov. Kay Ivey has scheduled special primaries for Aug.

11 in four districts that would be affected if the 2023 map is reinstated. The state maintains that the Supreme Court should permit the legislatively enacted map to remain in place for the remainder of the election cycle.